Two scrappy goals helped Crystal Palace past Stoke City and into the quarter-finals of the FA Cup.
On a rotten night in south London this was never going to be the most engaging or exciting of contests but the Eagles battled on and sealed their place in the last eight for the first time since 2019.
Patrick Vieira has been hailed for developing a more attractive Palace side but will have been pleased with the character shown to fight on - having previously called for more grit and determination from this squad.
Vieira, who won this competition five times as a player, named a strong side against their Championship visitors. Wilfried Zaha and Michael Olise both started after impressive showings against Burnley, while amidst the big names there was a full debut for highly rated left-back, Tayo Adaramola.
In unrelenting rain - which caused quite the leak in the Selhurst Park roof, soaking a pocket of fans seated in the main stand - Stoke made things difficult for their hosts throughout the first half. The Potters pressed well and pushed high, preventing Palace from exerting any sort of control over the game.
Palace didn’t manage a single shot on target during the first half, though Olise had a penalty call waved away following a VAR check.
While Jack Butland - facing his former side for the first time since joining Palace - had not been worked, there was a sense of frustration as the two sides trudged off at the break.
Palace emerged from the break with a little more purpose, but this game in these conditions was never going to be set going by a moment of brilliance and it was a scrappy set piece goal which nudged the hosts ahead.
Olise worked short to Zaha from the corner and the Eagles talisman worked a disguised ball to the feet of Jean Philippe-Mateta, whose scuffed shot deflected to the feet of Kouyate to fire high past Jack Bonham.
Palace looked buoyed by the opener and carved open another half chance when Mateta fell just short of Will Hughes’s inviting cross from the left - but soon they were pegged back once more.
Having driven forward well, Hughes switched off at the back and allowed Romaine Sawyers to push past him down the right before moving inside and crossing low to the far post where Josh Tymon finished well.
Vieira turned to Conor Gallagher and Jeffrey Schlupp to salvage the situation, though Palace were still not in control and were given a big let off when Jordan Thompson volleyed over from inside the box after Joachim Andersen’s header had fallen perfectly for him.
Andersen provided a rather better header when nodding Liam Moore’s effort over the bar as he guarded an open net.
Gallagher had injected some energy and bite into Palace’s midfield and it was a cross of his from the left which sparked the opener. The Chelsea loanee whipped a ball on top of Stoke ‘keeper Bonham, who leapt forward and punched clear, only as far as the substitute Riedewald, who collected and fired home his first goal since February last year.
With Luka Milivojevic introduced to the base of midfield, the Eagles managed their most controlled spell of the game to see things out and secure their place in a draw which leaves them one game from Wembley.
